Read Online Rocky Mountain Oasis by Lynnette Bonner - Free Book Online

beyond that knoll.” He pointed up ahead.
    Brooke wondered at the word home. Would this place ever really feel like a home to her? How long would she be here? Would this man who had married her find she wasn’t satisfactory and send her back to Uncle Jackson, demanding his money back? Or, worse yet, would he simply abandon her, leaving her to her own fate? That’s what Uncle Jackson would do. She pondered these questions until they topped the knoll that Sky had indicated and he reined the horse to a stop.
    She could see a small log cabin nestled amongst some trees setting back against the rise of a hill. Off to the left stood another structure that she assumed to be the barn, a corral extending off the side. Several chickens pecked and scratched in the grass, looking for choice morsels, and a cow lowed from the barn.
    Sky had started down the hill now and she turned her attention back to the house. It had at least two windows, one on the front to the left of the door and one around the left side of the house. The house faced south, she noted with satisfaction, so there would be plenty of sunlight during the day. The covered porch had a split-log rail along the front and sides with a break in the middle where the stairs led up to the door. A pile of wood was stacked on the porch to the right of the door. At the back of the house she could make out the top of a rock chimney.
    Everything in sight looked neat and clean, from the evenly trimmed shrubs at the corners of the house and the carefully swept yard, to the cedar shakes on the roof that were free of moss and other lichens.
    She sighed, now knowing she would have the strength to endure this man. She had hoped the man she was pledged to marry would be clean and hard working. She had even dared, on a few occasions, to hope he would not be cruel. But no matter what came her way, this house was enough. It would be her refuge. She loved it already. She would take time to find joy in this one little thing. A nice home. It was enough to bolster her belief in her own strength and ability to persevere.
    She was only just now in her relief and thankfulness beginning to see what a toll the stress from this situation had taken on her. She had not been herself since Uncle Jackson had come to her and told her she would be traveling west in two weeks’ time to be married to a man she had never met. She had reasoned it would be doubly humiliating to be beaten and bruised by a total stranger. But at least the pain of having loved him would not be there, she tried to comfort herself.
    Sky pulled the black stallion to a stop in the yard in front of the house. Sliding agilely off the back of the horse he came to her side and offered her a hand. She slid to the ground but immediately realized that her leg, which had been wrapped around the saddle horn, had fallen asleep. Knowing she would fall on her face if she tried to move, she tried to look casual as she stood unmoving on her good leg glancing around the yard, but Sky eyed her questioningly as he untied her bag from the saddle.
    Turning to her, he took her elbow and stepped toward the house. When she didn’t move, he stopped and raised an eyebrow.
    “My leg—” she gestured helplessly—“fell asleep. I’ll be able to move in a second.”
    Without hesitation he set her bag on the ground and swept her up into his arms. Her heart lurched as her arms reflexively clasped about his neck.
    Carrying her up the steps and across the threshold of the house, he grinned down at her. “I guess this is the way newlyweds should enter their home anyway.”
    To cover her fear and confusion she scanned the interior of the little cabin. The single room functioned as kitchen, dining room, living room, and bedroom all in one. To the right of the doorway against the front wall of the house was a small square table with two straight-back chairs at opposite sides, and a window just behind it on the side wall. A cupboard sat on the floor at the rear right